‘It’ll take you a long time to reach the mountains, especially walking backwards’
Homeless: Tomas decides to walk. He does so backwards, as he has done ever since his wife Dora and son Gaspar died some years ago. People say that he walks backwards because he is angry with God, but Tomas knows this is not so. He merely chooses to be careful: if he walks backwards, it is far more difficult for someone to follow him. Luckily, no one in Lisbon in 1904 thinks there is anything at all unusual about this, so he is allowed to go about his daily business bumping into things and knocking over old ladies while maintaining his job in the National Museum of Ancient Art.
One day when he was walking backwards, he came across a 17th-century diary belonging to a Father Ulisse, who had been a missionary in São Tomé. “My God,” exclaims Tomas. “I think I have found an artefact that could change the face of Christianity as we know it.” After further research, Tomas discovers the crucifix has been conveniently relocated to a small church in the High Mountains of Portugal. “Oh dear,” says Tomas. “It is going to take a long time to get there walking backwards.”
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